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<img vspace="5" hspace="5" border="0" align="left" alt="Knowing the God" src="http://brahmakumaris.com/images/knowinggod.jpg" class="demo" />  In this world, many beliefs exist about God. As a result, people  understand God in their own way and often in their own imagination. But  what is required is the understanding God as He is, what He is and how  He is. The correct understanding about God has to be given by God  Himself!<br />
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There are some who don&rsquo;t believe in the existence of  God, often the reason being His existence cannot be proved like that of  human beings. But because we cannot see God with the gross eyes, it  doesn&rsquo;t mean that God doesn&rsquo;t exist. Just like wind, which cannot be  seen but can be very much felt, it is possible to experience God&rsquo;s  presence through Godly knowledge and meditation.<br />
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<strong>Who is God and what is His form and name?</strong><br />
We  shall now try to understand who God or the Supreme Soul is. The term  &lsquo;Supreme Soul&rsquo; means He is supreme among all souls. It implies that, He  is also &lsquo;a soul&rsquo;, though He is the Highest of all. He is above birth and  death. God is the Supreme Father-Mother, Supreme teacher and Supreme  Preceptor to all the human beings and He himself has no father-mother,  teacher and preceptor.<br />
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God is a subtle, infinitesimal point of  Light. He is not visible to the naked eye but it is very much possible  to experience His presence and proximity in meditation. He is  incorporeal in the sense that he does not have a body of his own. He is  not a human being nor does He have a human form. He is immune to  pleasure and pain unlike human beings.<br />
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Names are a means of  identification of human beings after they are born. They do not speak of  qualities and actions of the person; they are simply proper nouns and  are not attributive names. But the name of the supreme soul or God is  based on His qualities and actions. His self-revealed name is &lsquo;Shiva&rsquo;.  &lsquo;Shiva&rsquo; means doer of good or benefactor. God does good to all and  therefore He is called Shiva. All souls ask for salvation and beatitude  i.e. peace and happiness from Him. People remember Him by many other  expressive names.<br />
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<strong>His Virtues</strong><br />
God is the  Supreme Father of all. He is called the creator. He is oceanic in his  virtues &ndash; the ocean of peace, the ocean of love, the ocean of bliss, the  ocean of knowledge, the ocean of happiness, the ocean of mercy, etc. He  is the truth. He is the Almighty and Authority. He is reputed to be the  preserver or sustainer of virtues and the destroyer of all evils. He is  also the liberator, the guide, and the bestower of salvation, therefore  the sadguru. He dispels sorrow, bestows joy. God is perfect in all ways  and absolutely detached and loving. He is very benevolent and helpful  and so souls ask all things of him. When in sorrow and losing all hope,  souls turn to him intuitively and inevitably.<br />
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Many are the  religions and paths that souls take in their quest for reaching God.  Many wars have been waged in his name. However, he does not exclusively  belong to anyone. He belongs to everyone equally.<br />
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The Supreme Father of all Souls</strong><br />
God  is the father of all souls in this world. It is observed that all  religions have images, idols or memorials bearing one name or another to  represent the form of Light that God is. All over India, the images of  the form that Shiva has is found installed; these images are without any  human form, in the form of linga,&nbsp; which is the symbol of an  incorporeal Being. At Mecca, in the holy place of Kaaba, a stone image  with oval form is called &ldquo;Sang-e-Aswad&rdquo;. The devotees who go for&nbsp; Haj  kiss this holy stone. Jesus Christ said, &ldquo;God is Light&rdquo;. Guru Nanak, the  founder of Sikhism also sang the praise of Him who is &lsquo;All-Light&rsquo; ( ek  Omkar) and is incorporeal. In olden days, the Jews held a stone of this  shape in their hands while taking a solemn oath and it is believed that  Moses had vision of this form of God when he saw a flame behind the  bush. The Zoroastrians worship God as fire. The ancient Egyptians  worshipped the sun as god. A Buddhist sect in Japan focuses the mind on a  small oval shape. They call it Karni, the peace giver.<br />
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It seems  therefore that human beings, without realizing, have all been  worshipping and trying to discover the same God. There is only one God  and His form is a point of light. He is called by different names in  different religions.<br />
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<strong>The Divine Abode of God</strong><br />
Where  does God live? Is there somewhere one can go to see Him, to be with  Him? God is a subtle point of light, and He does not pervade the  physical universe. Nor does he live in the heart of any human being or  in any matter. Neither is He omnipresent; nor is He having a human form.  His home is the incorporeal world, an infinite expanse of golden-red  light, which is beyond this physical world we live. It is the original  abode of all souls as well. The incorporeal world is known as Paramdham  or Brahmlok.&nbsp; Knowing where the Supreme Father is, we can establish  connection with Him through thoughts during meditation.<br />
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The Divine Descent of God</strong><br />
God  descends into this world when it is under the spell of extreme darkness  of ignorance, unrighteousness, moral turpitude, spiritual lassitude and  religious decrepitude. This is described in scriptures as &ldquo;Dharma  Glani&rdquo;. Looking at the state of affairs today, it should not be  difficult for us to conclude that the time the world is undergoing at  present is indeed the Dharma Glani. This is the period of darkness when  sins and crimes of all kinds usually take place; when man gropes around  for want of clear vision. It is at this time that God intervenes in the  affairs of mankind. The divine intervention takes place at the darkest  hour of human history when the human soul is groping in the darkness of  ignorance about the self, the creator and the creation; when the souls  are blinded by the vices of lust, arrogance, anger, greed and  attachment.<br />
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It is in this time that God descends in the body of  an ordinary man to reveal the Godly Knowledge, which paves way to  victory over vices and cultivate divine qualities in life. This enables  human beings to transform into divine beings again.